Joint for railway-rails



(No Model.)

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JQINT POR RAILWAY RAILS. No. 405,675. Y Patented June 18, 1889.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.,

ORCELIUS L. OLDS, OF CLEVELAND, OI-IIO.

JOINT FOR RAILWAY-RAILS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 405,675, dated June 18,1889. Application filed March 5, 1889. Serial No. 302,023. (No model.)

Ton/ZZ whom t may concern:

Beit known that I, ORCELIUs L. OLDs, a citizen of the United States,residing at Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Joints forRailway-Rails; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full,clear, and exact description of the invention, which will enable othersskilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to improvements in iish-joints for railway-rails.

The purpose of my invention is to form a firm and reliable joint forrailway-rails which does not employ bolts and nuts or other meanspassing through the rails for fastening the sa1ne,and is adaptable torails in common use without any material change in their construction.

To this end my invention consists in a pair of Iish-plates, a chair, awedge,a gib, and pawl, all constructed and arranged substantially asshown and described, and particularly pointed out in the claims.

Referring to the drawings, Figure l is an end elevation of a rail and ofthe joint supporting and locking mechanism. Fig. 2 is a longitudinalsection on line x oc, Fig. l. Fig. 3 shows ends of rails as they meetand make connection on the chair, the lugs on the chair coming on eitherside of the web and the head of the rails removed to uncoverthesefeatures. Most of the chair also is broken away. Fig. et is aperspective view of a modified form of wedge. Other forms might besuggested, but these show the principle.

The joint here shown and described may be termed a suspension-joint, andis intended to be used between the cross-ties instead of upon them, asis most common; but of course it may be placed on the cross-ties, ifpreferred, though this is not deemed the better way. The entireconstruction, therefore, should be made with reference to the preferredarrangement, and the several parts be formed with suflicient weight andstrength to withstand the strain independent of any base-support- Arepresents the form of chair used in my improved joint. This chair has abase a and twf.` sides a d2, extending inward and upward from the base,with their faces dBu-4 longitudinally opposite to the4 center of the webb of the rail B. The space within the base of the chair inside of theside portions is some what wider than the flanged base of the rail,while the space between the faces d3 dl of the sides is such that thechair can be readily placed in position on the rail for locking and beas readily removed therefrom. In use the only direct point of contactbetween the chair and the rail is on the base. The fish-bars o c` whichare duplicates of one another, perform the usual function in locking andstrengthening the rail-joint, and the bar C is provided with a rib c2,which engages the lower edge of the side a of the chair and holds thechair up to rails. On the side a of the chair A the face d3 extendsentirely across the said side from the top to the base a. This face isinclined from the bottom to the top inward toward the rail, and is plainand smooth throughout its length.

D is the gib, which has one side inclined to adapt it to the inclinedface a4 of the chair, and the other face set vertically parallel withthe face of the iislnbar. This other face has a longitudinal groove d,of equal width throughout, preferably dovetailed, though the edges ofthe groove may be right-angled, and at the en ds of the gib are lipsd,which lock justby the ends of the chair and prevent-its longitudinaldisplacement. The inclined side d4 of course will prevent the gib fromworking upward and out, and its lower edge d? is inclined to adapt it tothe incline of the base of the rail upon which it rests. Longitudinallythe gib D is wedge-shaped, as shown in Fig. 2; but this does not affectthe depth of the groove d, which is the same at all points.

E is the wedge for locking all the parts to gether. This wedge istapered longitudinally, and has its edges adapted to iit the dovetailedgroove d of the gib. It is of uniform width from end to end and isinserted between the gib and the lislrbar. The wedge and gib are setreversely to eachother, as seen in Fig. 2, and the taper of both beingvery gradual and easy I obtain locking mechanism which is believed to beas 'firm and eifective as can be made.

IOO

To lock the wedge in any given position, I set a spring-pawl g in arecess g in the gib and provide the Wedge with ratchet-teeth e,'arranged to bc engaged bythe paWl and to hold the wedge securely inplace. The pawl is to be made of heavy steel, so that it cannot beeasily sprung open.

Incase the form of joint hereinbefore described is found too rigid andhas not elasticity to compensate for severe strain without breaking atsome point, the desired relief may be obtained by employing aspring-wedge constructed according to either of the figures shown, or tosome equivalent-ligure. Two forms of such a wedge are here shown, one inFig. 9, in which the back of the wedge is formed with What may be termeda series of inclined spring-ribs e, upon which its spring depends, andextending transverselyfrom edge to edge of the Wedge and havinggraduated depth, according to the taper of the wedge. Another form ofspring-wedge is shown in Fig. 3,' where the wedge is made U shape incross-section. Still other forms might be suggested, but these willsuflice to illustrate this feature of the invention.

In Fig. 3 I show lugs h on the bottom of the chair, against which theends ot' the rails abut to prevent creeping.

It will be seen by the foregoing construction that the parts are boundfirmly together and cannot loosen or work out in any direction. The railand chair are kept close along the base and the fish-bars rigidly intheir seats. y

Having' thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire t0secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a rail-joint, a chairhaving a laterallyinclined face opposite theWeb of the rail, in combination with a longitudinally-tapered gibadapted to said inclined face on one side and its opposite face parallelin vertical lines to the web of the rail with a wed ge and fish-bars,substantially as set forth.

. 2. In a rail-joint, a gib wedge-shaped longitudinally and having alongitudinal groove on its inner side and itsouter side inclinedoutwardly from its top to its bottom edge, in combination with a chaircorrespondingly inclined to the gib, and a wedge and {ish-bar,substantially as set forth.

3. In a rail-joint, a chair with one vertical and one inclined side, anda rail, in combination with a gib having an inclined side rest ingagainst the side of the chair and its lower edge bearing on the rail,the said gib tapered and grooved longitudinally, and a wedge set' insaid groove and bearing against the lishbar, substantially as set forth.

ORCELIUS L. OLDS. Witnesses:

I. L. CoREY, H. T. FISHER.

